Regardless of your views and opinions on faith, religion, and life in general, I think you should read this because I am writing it with the aim of helping any readers examine their own life. Or you can choose not to read it. I don’t care. I’m going to write it anyway.
“An unexamined life is not worth living.” –Plato
As I write this, I find myself viewing life through one of the most unique lenses of perspective I’ve ever had. In the past three successive months, I have lost a relationship with someone important in my life either to Heaven, in two cases, or a decision to go separate ways in the latter. I am also just 75 days away from embarking on an eleven month journey away from everyone and everything I’ve known in my life on Earth, that will be the most radical and life changing period of my 22 years here. Like I said, a unique and new perspective for my brain to try and tackle.
While this perspective has been extremely positive overall, it has left me with a very fearful view of the life occurring all around me. I realize this is not an earth shattering, fresh, new opinion that none of you have ever heard, but things are not good in our world. Big picture: war, hate, poverty, starvation, destruction of environment, pollution, etc. Since no one has come up with a viable solution for these things in several millennia, I’ll choose to focus on the small picture: the self.
Of all the wonderful and horrible things on this planet, there is only one thing we are capable of controlling. Our self. Attitude, action, words, and works. I’m not the smartest guy in the world, and I don’t have the most experiences or deepest philosophical views, but as I have a self, I think I’m qualified to talk about such a thing. If you disagree, again that’s your choice, and you don’t have to read this. But you should read it anyway.
We are born, we do some things, and then we die.
Birth and death are guaranteed little moments, but all that really matters are the things we do in the middle. Once again, this is not a new opinion that hasn’t been stated before, but it is one that should never cease to create discussion. We all know this, but are we aiming for the wrong “some things”?
Yes. We are. (Duh) If we weren’t, there wouldn’t be all the above mentioned bad things. As I observe life and people around me, I find myself equally as guilty of worrying about all kinds of stuff that doesn’t make anything better.
We worry about twitter, and Instagram, and facebook, and the likes we get.
We worry about what clothes we should wear to look good.
We worry about what food we eat, and what workouts we do.
We worry about which people to impress with our stories and actions.
We worry about how much money we will make and what we can buy with it.
We worry about who we date and how we are viewed by others.
We worry about competition, and accolades, and acknowledgement.
We worry about how to get ahead of the person next to us who is worrying about all the same things.
But,
What if we worried less about competition and more about community?
What if we stopped judging others?
What if we worried less about how we look from the outside and more about who we are in our hearts?
What if we measured ourselves not by our possessions, money, status, or career, but by the love we spread and how we treat others?
What if we all thought “It’s not about me or my comfort or my happiness”?
What if we worried about living like Jesus?
“Woah, woah, woah, this was going in a positive direction; I thought you said we should read this regardless of our views on religion?”
I’m not talking about religion, I’m talking about Jesus. Whether you believe him to be real or fictional, He is a perfect, ideal role model for how we should interact with other humans. I’m talking about His unconditional love and the hope and joy it brings.
As a follower of Jesus, I’ll be the first to tell you, this does not come easy. The world around you isn’t magically going to change just because you want it to. Trying to live and love like Jesus doesn’t mean you stop doing things that hurt yourself or others, and it doesn’t mean that others will stop doing things that hurt you. As Christians, I think we often become misguided that because we are trying to love and follow a perfect God, our self and our life will suddenly become perfect too. (Not to mention we often think we are always right, and get to judge others, and beat them over the head with our opinions) Although we know this isn’t true, it seems we can’t stop hoping for it to be.
“So what’s the point of following Jesus if you just said it isn’t magically going to solve all those problems?”
He’s the only way we can ever come close.
He’s the only way to make sense of the horrible aspects of life, and the only way to draw true comfort. He’s the only solution for a joy regardless of our circumstances, regardless of our hurts and hang-ups. He’s the only one who ever exemplified true sacrifice and unconditional love.
He’s the only one who can guide our hearts to choose love over hate, peace over war, community over competition, service over exploitation, generosity over greed, understanding over prejudice, moderation over abuse, healing over pain, trust over fear, and selflessness over self.
If you’ve found a way to choose all these things that doesn’t involve the unconditional love of Christ, I’d really like to discuss it with you and hear your thoughts because, together, we just might be able to change this world.
But the world won’t be fixed by any equation, or theory, or study, or product. It can only be fixed by love, specifically, the perfect, judgement-free, and unconditional love of Jesus.
Once again, it is not my aim to tell you what to believe. I only aim to help you examine your own life, and your role in this world. This is what I believe, and it has given me the perspective of an optimistic idealist, full of joy beyond circumstance, and full of love for others.
*Disclaimer: It will never be easy to forgive and love people who hurt you, but do it anyway.
Also, (maybe biased)
I’ve never heard a valid reason for not believing in Jesus.
“Nah, I don’t want to believe that I have a creator who wants to be my all-knowing, all-powerful best friend, who loves me unconditionally, and wants to bring me to his perfect home devoid of all pain, suffering, hate, and badness. Yeah I mean the cost is way too high. I don’t want to be good to people, and love them, and be forgiven of everything I’ve done wrong just by asking for it and believing so.”
So why not give that a try? There’s nothing to lose.
If we are wrong, then we were born, we lived a life pursuing noble things, spreading love, peace, and prosperity by aiming to live like Jesus, and then we die.
If we are right, we did all of those “some things” between birth and death, and then we meet that perfect God, in a perfect place, called Heaven. That doesn’t sound too bad does it?
